DOE Charter Accountability Scores Some Points, Loses Others

Back to work on the NASCA report.  Here's the latest - DOE clears some hurdles with NASCA regarding compliance, at the same time, NASCA finds more deficiencies.  Here's the code:  Bold Black is Good for DOE.  Bold Red is Bad for DOE. Here's the CASCA link again (note: the citation for the following quotation - Page 18/35)http://blogs.delawareonline.com/delawareed/files/2011/06/NACSA_DE_Eval_REPORT_FINAL.pdf

Analysis


As established, DDOE does not execute charter contracts per se, nor are charter contracts required by statute. By law and by practice, the charter application, as submitted, is the approved document. While some material terms are addressed in the charter application, the designation of the application as the charter contract is both an atypical and inadequate practice, as critical elements outlining the roles and responsibilities of both parties - the authorizer and the school operator - are not included in the charter application.

As applied, the authorizer does not have a systematic approach to verifying with statutory requirements or charter terms, nor does it systematically review annual reports charter schools are required by law to submit. However, because charter schools are legally defined as public schools, and must report compliance, operating, and financial information to DDOE in the same manner as do traditional schools, the authorizer is able, to some degree, to monitor compliance and charter term fidelity. In practice, the authorizer has been in taking compliance monitoring actions, as evinced by correspondence sent to schools regarding failure to meet compliance requirements (including charter conditions) and the authorizer's history of placing schools on Formal Review and Probationary Status for non-compliance and other reasons. School operators confirmed the authorizer's active focus on ensuring compliance, though some, if not most, operators interviewed believed that the authorizer's aggressiveness borders on, or crosses over into, micro-managing and unnecessarily impedes school operating autonomy.

Special Note to Charter Operators regarding the final sentence of this NACSA paragraph - You think DOE micro-manages you?  DOE insinuates itself so deeply into school district management, all the while claiming
"its" (whatever "it" may be) is a local issue, that local control has been crippled and will likely eventually disintegrate before our very eyes.